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Continued Wrangling In Court Over Affordable Housing In NJ

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) - The battle over court mandated affordable housing in New Jersey raged again this week before the state Supreme Court.

At issue now is whether to include the inability of a state agency to administer regulations for 16 years in the requirements for municipalities to abide by going forward.

Four versions of the original 1975 Mount Laurel decision provide ammunition for both sides of the question. Kevin Walsh, arguing for the Fair Share Housing Center, is in favor of including those affected by the inaction of the Council on Affordable Housing between 1999 and last year.

"The people who are in the gap period methodology are people that have a current need for affordable housing, they are alive, they are in the state of New Jersey and they're real," Walsh told the court.

Attorney Jeffrey Surenian, representing towns that oppose recognizing that 16 year gap, insists the legislature and prior court decisions never looked back.

"When you decided Mount Laurel One, you didn't make it retroactive to the time of zoning," he countered. "When you decided Mount Laurel Two, you didn't make it retroactive to Mount Laurel One."

To do so now, he suggested, would create a never ending, unachievable quota.

The justices gave no indication when they might rule.

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